


meet me in the afterglow

by hotaruyy



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends, Dancing, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, Intimacy, Love Confessions, Morning After, Mutual Pining, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 09:07:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21847204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotaruyy/pseuds/hotaruyy
Summary: “This seems awfully intimate for a one-night stand,” Brienne says. The music that’s playing from Jaime’s phone wafts through the small apartment, delicate notes drifting through the golden morning light.Or, Jaime asks Brienne to dance with him in the living room, the morning after.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 24
Kudos: 209





	meet me in the afterglow

**Author's Note:**

> So this summer I finally decided to start watching Game of Thrones after season 8 came out. I just finished season 7, and I guess this fic is written to prepare myself for the letdown that will be season 8. But also, everyone on the show is ridiculously hot????? I have the hugest crush on everyone (of course including both Jaime and Brienne lol).
> 
> No Jaime/Cersei is implied or intended. They just used to be overly dependent on each other in this AU.
> 
> Title from Taylor Swift’s ‘Afterglow’.

“This seems awfully intimate for a one-night stand.”

“Maybe I don’t want this to be a one-night stand.” Jaime takes her hand and walks backwards, pulling her to the middle of her living room. The calluses on his fingertips are just as rough on her skin as they were last night, and she represses a sweet shiver that snakes from her neck down her spine, all the way to her toes.

“You don’t mean that,” Brienne says. But when he curls an arm around her waist, she lays her left arm on his shoulder, letting her thumb brush the soft hair on the nape of his neck. His breath ghosts across her face, warm. It would have made her shudder if it were anyone else, but her mind is wrapped around how solid Jaime’s presence is, here with her.

The music that’s playing from Jaime’s phone wafts through the small apartment, delicate notes drifting through the golden morning light. Her mahogany floorboards reflect the sun, basking Jaime with a yellow glow. It lights up his face and his tenderly gleaming green eyes. She wants to feel dumb, poised to dance in her small living room, the couch and the wall facing it just a few steps away from each other.

“I do mean it. I don’t just dance with anyone, and neither do you. You blushed when I suggested we dance,” Jaime says, smile crooked and captivating, the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes crunching up adorably. Brienne’s breath catches in her throat before she makes herself breathe out again, her reaction smooth with years of practice. Her best friend is pretty and she’s always known it, she thinks wryly to herself. Too pretty for her. Too pretty for last night to have happened at all, let alone for it to be more than a one-night stand.

Brienne laughs to cover up her pause, a short bark that clashes harshly with the music. “Jaime, please. I don’t dance with anyone because no one will dance with me. You know this.”

“Hey, hey. No. You know what I say about demeaning yourself. And!" A playful finger wags exaggeratedly in front of her face, "This time you can’t say I’m just saying things to raise your self-esteem, because I have proof.” Jaime’s smile turns rueful, his gaze lowering. “ _I_ want to dance with you. I’ve wanted to for ten years. Remember prom? I didn’t… I never told you this, but I had been thinking about how to ask you to dance for weeks. Weeks!” His chuckle is a brief, nervous affair. “After what those assholes did to you I didn’t think it would be a good idea to ask. But I guess I’m asking now.”

Of course Brienne remembers prom. She remembers the football team’s bet being revealed, the sharp humiliation of realising she would have actually said yes if Hyle had invited her home. She remembers viciously scrubbing off her tear-stained makeup in the washroom, and Renly’s frantic voice outside the door. She remembers standing huddled against the back wall as Sansa and Renly’s words washed over her, watching Jaime twirl his sister expertly across the dance floor. The golden siblings. When Jaime and Margaery were awarded prom king and queen on stage, Jaime’s eyes had locked onto hers. And Brienne– she had looked away.

But right now, Jaime’s looking at her through his lashes, expectant. There’s a warmth that’s unfolding inexorably in her belly, a tingle that suffuses her limbs, and it carries her upwards, lifting her lips into a wide smile. Unspeaking, she raises her right arm, palm to palm with his left hand.

When Jaime steps forwards, she moves with him. Small steps, in time with the music. Now backwards, then sideways. The heat from his hand is seeping through the thin layer of cotton at the small of her back, burning like a brand. Forwards this time, then sideways in the other direction. The floor beneath their bare feet is warm from the morning sun, and dust motes are glittering in the light. Backwards. Sideways. She stumbles into Jaime at a misstep. Though she does not fall, an odd squeak comes from her mouth. They lock eyes at the sound and burst out laughing, Jaime’s deep, full belly laugh making him lean forwards, his muscles pressing into hers. Brienne’s laugh is even louder and not at all restrained. She leans even more into Jaime’s body, far too caught up with mirth, far too relaxed, to remember to keep the minimal distance she set herself years ago.

The music speeds up, and they smile at each other before continuing to move, stances straightening, steps growing bigger. Brienne lets out a breath slowly. Deliberately, she gives over to following Jaime’s cues from just the slightest pressure from his fingers, the posture of his body. Her eyes are focused only on his, the room seeming to blur in the periphery of her vision as the music grows even faster. She’s barely conscious of her body. Jaime guides them to pace a circle around the room, then as the music swells to its fullest, he flings her out into a spin.

For a moment it seems as though time slows, and a ghostly, heavy gown unfurls around her. It swirls with her as she spins, the weight of it swaying her into a full turn, pulling against both hers and Jaime’s stretched arms. Slow-motion, she spins back inwards, Jaime coming into her view. The light from the windows illuminate Jaime’s hair like candlelight from candelabra, making it shimmer, and the music is joined by haunting notes of flutes and pipes and harps, soaring through a great hall with a vaulted ceiling. Brienne finds herself breathless, frozen in time.

Then she blinks and she is back in Jaime’s embrace, their bodies pressed close together after the spin. Chest to chest, she can feel how his lungs heave for breath, her own echoing his. It’s loud, and it fills her mind. Jaime is looking at her, the way he looks at her sometimes, a look she hasn’t learnt to decipher yet but has learnt to accept.

His eyes drop down to her mouth. “Brienne.” Her name breathed through his lips. A whisper.

And the thing is, Brienne can’t help it, never could. She is caught in the honeyed trap of his voice, his bottomless well of enthusiasm, the exquisite green ring of his irises. The gentle press of his hand, his bright laugh on a rainy day, the way he never crosses the line she drew in the sand.

And like last night, she is the one to cross that line instead.

Tipping her head down, she brings her lips to his and presses softly, a far cry from last night’s desperate kisses. Jaime makes a noise at the back of his throat and kisses back, eyes slipping shut.

They stand there like that for a while, holding each other close, kissing slowly. Eventually, Jaime pulls back. Tucks his head into the crook between her neck and her shoulder. Failing to resist the urge, Brienne presses a kiss into his hair and runs her hand through it, marvelling at how it is still silky after years.

Jaime lifts his head to meet her eyes, and his voice is low and pleasantly raspy when he speaks.

“Brienne, I don’t want this to be a one-night stand. If you do, that’s fine, but I… I’m not… please don’t think that I want this for one night only.”

Brienne’s whole body stills.

“I want you. I want this–” Jaime waves at them, “–with you. Every day. Ever since– well, maybe not since I first noticed you at school fighting off Sansa’s bullies single-handedly, because that was just me being starstruck,” he says with a smile, surprising a laugh from Brienne. “But it was somewhere down the line of you offering to help me with my homework, even though you didn’t like me that much ‘cause I was a huge asshole back in high school. And in college, when you took care of me through that shitstorm of an argument with Cersei. Even our movie nights, when we complain about our jobs over beer and pizza.”

He looks increasingly worked up to Brienne, gestures becoming more animated. There’s a faint rosiness to his cheeks. Brienne’s thoughts feel sluggish, struggling to catch up to what Jaime’s words mean.

“I love how you’re so fucking kind even when people are total jerks to you, and how despite that, you still don’t take shit from anyone. I love how you…” Jaime shakes his head. “You’re never afraid to say what you think. Sometimes when you get worried, you bite whatever you’re holding and you don’t notice it, and Gods, it’s adorable.

“I love that you insist on us going for morning runs every day because… of course we know it helps our bodies, but also because you read that it helps with the… the whole feeling better thing. And I love your eyes. They’re beautiful. So…” Jaime makes a helpless gesture, visibly straining for words. “Expressive. Right now they look kind of shocked, actually.” Jaime’s laugh is shaky. “I love that you’re so tall, and I love that your body is all hard planes and edges. Maybe it’s because I love knowing that if I lean on you you’ll prop me up, but mostly I’m just _really_ into you,” Jaime breathes out another laugh before continuing.

“I’ve learnt how to... value myself and other people more because of how you value me and other people. Well, you still have to work on valuing yourself,” Jaime grins, “But I know how far you’ve come compared to when we first got closer.

“I thank the Gods for last night. I’ve wanted it for so long, but I guess I’ve always wanted more than I’ve got. So. I love you, Brienne. And not just in the way we usually say it. And, if I’m somehow not reading this wrong, then you feel the same way too.” Brienne vaguely registers alarm in the back of her head at how transparent she must have been acting, but Jaime plunges on. “What I’m trying to say is, I’m hoping we can have something more than what we already have. And I’ve been rambling on for a long time, and you look kind of overwhelmed, so I’m going to shut up now and let you speak.” Holding both her hands, Jaime takes a step back. He tilts his chin up to look her straight in the eye.

“I…” Brienne’s mind is racing. Surely there must be something she’s missing, something that would make Jaime’s words make sense. What does he mean, more than what they have? And since when did he start seeing through her feelings? Does he really mean that he loves her or does he mean it as a closer friendship?

No doubt Jaime sees that she’s panicking, as he takes a step forward and hushes her. With a hand at the back of her head, he gently tips their foreheads together. The touch grounds her, and she feels her senses slowly returning to focus on him, his face sharpening into clarity in front of hers.

He shoots her a lopsided, uncertain smile. “I love you, more than as a friend. No tricks. No mindgames. And I hope you love me too. And that you can be my… partner? Girlfriend?”

And just like that, something shifts in Brienne’s perception and her world realigns, pieces clicking into place in a new picture.

“Yes.” She smiles so widely that her cheeks ache. Something bright is pressing behind her eyes. “Yes, I do. Love you, I mean.” Then she’s laughing, soft giggles at first, building up to a braying laugh that has tears leaking out the corners of her eyes.

“Jaime! You’re telling me we both spent literal years wanting this and not doing a thing about it?” She’s gasping now, and Jaime is smoothing a hand down her back while joining in the laughter, his shoulders relaxing from their earlier tense stance.

“Guess we’re both just blind idiots in love.” Jaime’s smile can’t possibly get any wider, but Brienne feels like it does.

“Well, at least I know what that look means now,” Brienne manages to say in between snorts of laughter.

“What look?”

“That look you get… You’re doing it now! That look!” Brienne shrieks and points, almost maniacally, at Jaime’s face.

Jaime’s eyes are filled with love, and he looks buoyantly happy to her. She wonders if she looks the same, and that’s when Jaime puts both hands on her cheeks and plants a huge, wet kiss on her nose.

Brienne squawks while Jaime starts laughing again, and life is good at the moment, she thinks. Truly good. Jaime’s laughter is in her ears, his smile in her eyes, his warm body solid against hers. They’ll wake up together in bed tomorrow, head out for their morning run side by side, and Jaime will, as always, be distracted by the dogs in the park. They’ll walk to the meet-up with their friends tomorrow night and money will probably change hands, because their friends are the type to make bets about when they would get their heads out of their asses, and there’ll be hugs and sincere congratulations from all of them. And it might be too soon, but Brienne can see her and Jaime working this out, growing old together. Happy.

Life is good, Brienne thinks, so in her cosy apartment with dancing dust motes and sun streaming through her window, she kisses her boyfriend back properly, soft and quiet in the morning light.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays, hope you enjoyed it <3


End file.
